17 January 2013

Saddle bags, seat packs and tool rolls

Since I bought my Carradice Barley a year ago, it has lived on my commuting bike, but as the Winter has drawn in and I am using this bike almost all the time, I decided to replace it with something more compact for the times I was riding and didn’t need laptop, jacket, clothes etc. I have never got on well with the standard saddle bags - I have split two Bontrager wedges on my Surly and find the wedge shape generally impractical. On my Condor Acciaio I have an Arundel Duel which is perfect - two tubes, a tyre lever and a tiny Park Tool multi-tool, so it’s not the size, just the shape that seems silly.

I looked at the couple of different tool rolls on the market, but I didn’t find one that was sized to fit what I needed and I ended up making my own from some waxed cotton purchased from eBay. Despite my wife having a good laugh at me sitting down with needle and thread for an hour or so, it has worked out well and looks OK.

It attaches firmly to the seat rails with a leather toe strap and is completely vibration free. It will easily hold a large inner tube (for 700x32c Marathon Supremes in the Winter), tyre levers, tyre patches, multi tool and a mini pump together with a small wallet and keys - all of which it has kept completely dry in pretty foul weather. On the days when I need the larger capacity of the Carradice, I just stick the whole roll in it.